"He's an acquaintance of yours…" The woman commented as she glanced sideways back to see her mate's expression.
"Are you talking about Minos?" The young man questioned her, realizing that he was going to his old acquaintance's territory, without even realizing it.
"But that's just in name. He probably doesn't actually rule this place... After all, Minos was in a coma for over five years when you and I left this kingdom..."
"And who knows what might have happened after so long…" He sighed for a moment, remembering the tragedy of his old friend from his days at the spiritual academy.
Minos had lost all the support he had with Albert's death and was still seriously injured when he was only 9-years-old....
And when compared to the misfortunes of these two friends, the unluck of this young man traveling at this moment did not seem so terrible!
On one side was an adulterous woman who had betrayed her husband and daughter with her son-in-law and a young man who had gone to bed and fallen in love with his mother-in-law.
On the other was a poor child who had lost his father and inherited a horrible inheritance...
That is, this young man had caused his own disgrace, while Minos had suffered without any guilt. And that was the worst, something that could make people feel moved, feeling sorry for the losses of others, as this young man felt now.
He might be a bastard for cheating on his wife with her mother, but that didn't mean there wasn't humanity inside him!
On the contrary, he was still able to feel sorry for the terrible fate others had.
And, despite the fact that he was not close enough to Minos to extend their relationship beyond the walls of that spiritual academy, they spent nearly four years living together daily, conversing and laughing.
For all that, Neal Ryan felt terrible for the fate of his old acquaintance.
On the other hand, the woman in front of this young man, Celeste Parkinson, the mother of the friend of Minos and Abby, Brooke Parkinson, was not as moved as her partner.
That's because, in addition to not caring about the life of a junior of the younger generation, she also knew that that young man had already woken up from his coma!
"Speaking of which, I remembered that I heard this news a few months ago about this Minos, but back then, I had forgotten to tell you." She said this while having an apologetic smile on her face.
Hearing this, Neal ran a hand over this mature woman's thighs and asked. "What? Don't tell me that..."
He was just about to ask something when Celeste interrupted him and continued her speech. "No, he didn't die. In fact, I heard from one of my contacts at the Brown Kingdom that after six years, this friend of yours had awakened from his coma and headed towards the Black Plain."
"Oh! That's good news, even though he's been relegated to living in such a place... But I suppose that's better than death!" He exclaimed with a smile.
"But why did you get such information? And how did you forget to tell me such a thing?"
"We were traveling a lot at that time, so I didn't put any priority on talking this with you... Anyway, over time I had even forgotten about it. If it wasn't for our current situation, maybe I never said anything."
"And as for the reason I received such information, it was because I paid for that contact to pass me any news about potential conflicts in the Brown Kingdom. And as the situation of this little friend of yours had been very strange, this informant had considered him as a possible threat."
"Threat?" Neal asked ridiculously. "That's nonsense. How could he have any chance of becoming a threat after everything that's happened?"
She smiled at him and commented. "Looks like his mother is pretty strong. I heard she's not from our region."
"Yes, I know that, but what does that have to do with it? A Spiritual Emperor cannot interfere in our region, otherwise..."
"Do you think I didn't think about it?" She turned to him once more and looked at him with a sober expression. "I know she won't act directly, but she might still take him to the empire at some point, and that could make him a threat!"
"Because of that, this person gave me the information about him recovering."
"Oh? So, this is how it is…" He then understood the whole situation. "Well, it doesn't matter, but it's good to know he woke up from his coma."
"But speaking of informers, you…" The two then continued talking during their journey through the barren terrain of the Black Plain until finally, they approached the Dry City.
As they did so, the first thing they had seen was a large number of lights, which seemed to form a large dome over the Dry City.
And since it was already night at this moment, the view from this place was magnificent, even if they couldn't see anything beyond the structure of the dome itself.
Other than that, they could see the great wall that stretched over a large area, which at the moment they could not even see the limits, due to their short distance from that place.
"What the fuck is this?" Neal asked aloud as he watched this place, which was currently less than 100 meters away from them.
At the same time, Celeste had made that beast that carried them stop as she tried to probe the terrain ahead.
"A gigantic barrier, produced by medium-level grade-2 arrays!" She yelled in shock, realizing that her spiritual sense couldn't enter that territory.
And as she thought about it a little better, this woman was starting to think that maybe it wasn't a good idea to go into that town. After all, no one in the north of this continent would pay for a defense like this!
So, to avoid problems for both of them, it might be better not to find out what was behind this shocking place.
"Neal, let's continue our journey to the Cromwell Kingdom. This place is hazardous. I think people in this town will be able to feel our energies and give clues to…" But while she was talking, a group of 30 people surrounded them, and one of these newcomers interrupted the couple's conversation.
"Forget about it. You've seen too much…" One woman said this while releasing her level 45 cultivation pressure. "According to the Dry City Written Laws, any Spiritual King who approaches the frontier of the city must be killed or imprisoned."
"Make your choices!" She finished her comment while signing her companions to prepare to fight.
These soldiers were between levels 44 and 45 and were used to fighting the Black Plain Army's Spiritual Kings as training for occasions like this. Because of that, they felt pretty confident in their collective strength to the point of making such a threat to a person so many levels stronger than themselves!
"What did you say?" Celeste asked in surprise as she tried to make sense of the situation.
She was terrified of what might be inside that dome and what was behind it. However, that didn't mean she had to be afraid of these individuals who were mostly ten levels below her!
At the same time, Neal was also shocked by this. He had never seen such a lack of respect from a Spiritual General to a Spiritual King!
Even when he and Celeste were fleeing from Brooke's father's pursuit, this mature woman was still highly respected wherever they went.
'But these people are very confident... And there is still that dome that can protect them... Yet they are still here, unprotected and threatening us.' He thought to himself as he felt his companion's body get more rigid as she got ready to fight.
But before anything could happen, the same soldier as before commented. "I advise you to clear these dangerous thoughts from your mind. If we fight, it will be a good fight that will be won narrowly, but…" She then pointed to the young man hugging Celeste's waist and then continued. "What about him?"
"Any one of us can kill him with a few hits... Will you want to risk it?" She asked with a satisfied smile as if she had already won this battle.
